Monday, June 05, 2006

Filling those endless summer days

It's been a week since Beloved's semester finished, and he's been home with the boys almost full time.

It's hard for me, being in my cube and knowing they are off playing somewhere together without me, but I think it's a lot harder on Beloved. He's getting a little twitchy, and I can see just a little bit too much of the whites of his eyes. It's not that he doesn't enjoy being with the boys, it's just that the anti-sleep conspiracy coupled with Simon's relentless mischeviousness would tire even Super Nanny. On evenings and weekends, we tag team rather effectively, but when the day begins at 5 am, finding enough stuff to keep them occupied is an ongoing challenge.

I have lots of holiday time this summer - being in my 16th year with the government has its advantages - and I'm taking my first of three weeks off at the end of this month, so they only have to get through another couple of weeks on their own.

What do you do to keep your kids occupied in the summer? Beloved is just getting comfortable with bringing them both to the library or the mall, but anything that requires intense supervision (i.e. a wading pool) might be a bit much. They all love going to the "new bookstore" to play with the train tables, and the grocery store has a little play zone where you can drop your kids for an hour of supervised play for free, so long as you stay in the store. (I wonder if taking a nap on the hammock display in the garden centre counts as staying in the store?)

I suggested the sprinkler, and our little inflatable kiddie pool with ten centimetres of water in it. We have an annual pass to three museums in town, including the science and technology museum and the experimental farm - both favourites of the boys. I just found out you can get free passes to some of the other museums in the city through the library, and we spent this past Saturday morning discovering the absolutely fabulous Children's Museum in town. (Can you tell I'm a road-trip kind of mother? I hate staying in the house when I'm home with the boys. Beloved is the opposite - he'd rather stay in, but acknowledges the boys get a little squirrelly if they spend too much time in the house. Just like their mother, they are.)

So bloggy friends, help preserve Beloved's tenuous grip on his sanity. What's your favourite summertime distraction for the preschool set?

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In August 2007, I made the switch from Blogger.com to my own hosted domain and WordPress. Please come and visit the new and improved Postcards from the Mothership at http://danigirl.ca/blog.

About Me

All you have to do is read the blog to know what you need to know about me. I'm mommy to Tristan and Simon, Beloved's wife, Granny and Papa Lou's daughter. As of August 2007, you can find Postcards from the Mothership at danigirl.ca